65 - Customer Service English, part 3 - spelling and giving phone customers concrete choices

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the No Te Rindas Intermediate English Podcast, home of the Tenaz Intermediate English

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_02]: App, disponible in No Te Rindas Podcast.us. Este es un podcast para hispanohablantes que

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_02]: quieren mejorar su comprensión auditiva del inglés de los Estados Unidos. Somos dos hermanos

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_02]: americanos con raíces mexicanas soy Gabo o Gabe aquí con mi hermano mayor Goyo o Greg.

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Good afternoon. Hey man, how is it going? Uh you know it's going fine but I'm just a wee

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: bit sad today Gabo. Oh you're sad? What's going on? Well the Georgia Bulldogs my university

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: football team where I went to graduate school have been really really successful for the last

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: several years and they lost a close game to Alabama yesterday and Alabama is the other

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: really really successful team from our what's called our conference the SEC. And so it

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: could suggest a change in the in the trajectory of the University of Georgia Bulldogs in football

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: in football americano. So yeah just a little sad. So it seems like they had a long winning

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_02]: streak where they just hadn't lost a game in a long time. So this is a big deal. They

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_02]: know it was over two years. Yeah. Wow. Lucky. Yeah. And well my Tennessee Titans are

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_02]: have not yet managed to win a game. Even the game I went to they lost and then they they lost again

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_02]: last week. So we're going to be on what's called Monday night football tomorrow. Okay. And Monday

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_02]: night football is kind of a big deal because it's a it's sort of a tradition. I think they're

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_02]: actually going to have two games close to the same time but we're playing against the

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: dolphins from Miami. So should be a good game. Well good luck to your Titans and good luck to my

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Bulldogs. What's today's topic? Well recently we hosted an episode with Milena of English Made

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Simple net now Milena is an English teacher and she lives in Australia. Now she asked us if

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_02]: we would record a little brief piece for her listeners on the topic of customer service English. So I

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_02]: thought today we could take some of those concepts and change them a bit and let's turn that into

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_02]: part three of our series that you and I have done on customer service and English. Now if

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_02]: you want to hear parts one and two please go to our website notaryindas podcast.us and listen to

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_02]: episodes 22 and 26 which are part one and two of this series. Now we want to thank Milena again

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02]: from English Made Simple net for being on our show and thank her again for letting us be part

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: of one of her shows here very soon. Listen for it. Si te gusta escuchar nuestros episodios y si usas

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Android puedes bajar nuestra app tenás intermediate English gratis de Google Play. Rindamos enlaces

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: en nuestra página notaryindaspodcast.us a todas nuestras apps. Hace un click en la pestaña

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_02]: para aplicaciones hoy. Gracias. Hola I'm Gavo here with my brother Goyo and we are the

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_02]: host of the notaryindas podcast. We specialize in teaching intermediate English to Spanish speakers.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Hola soy Goyo y hoy vamos a dar una muestra pequeña de nuestro formato de nuestra personalidad

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: en el estilo de nuestro show y vamos a enfocarnos hoy Gavo en el servicio al cliente que es una

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_02]: especialidad de ti. No es cierto? Si es cierto. I work in the customer service industry at a call

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_02]: center as a manager over a team of agents and one of the challenges for my agents is that we get

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_02]: calls from all over the United States. So my agents hear a lot of different spoken accents. Now I

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_02]: myself have a southern accent as they say as do many of the agents who work in my call center

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_02]: because of where I live. But we also have a call center that takes calls from my company and

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_02]: that call center is in Guatemala City Guatemala and those agents of course are native Spanish

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_02]: speakers. So when they speak English to the callers their accent is more neutral. Now we for example

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_02]: we sometimes have callers from the northeastern part of the United States and they might call

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_02]: what we call a water heater a water heater. Now hang on that so you and I would say water

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: heater and they say water heater like they don't pronounce the R on the end of the word.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Right that's a typical northeastern United States thing whether it be New England or New York

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_02]: often they drop the Rs off so they say what a heater. Another thing they might say is they

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_02]: might say that they left their credit card out in the car and are going to have to call back.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay so credit card becomes credit card and car becomes car and call becomes

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: call. Right did I say that right? That was perfect. Okay well I guess I'm ready to take the train

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: to New England then. So you can imagine that in this environment an environment where you might be one

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: day as a call center English speaker you need to be able to spell things. You might need to spell

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: your name, you might need to spell an email address so in the fairly recent past was invented

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: something called the NATO phonetic alphabet or the Alpha Bravo Charlie alphabet and this was

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: invented to make it easier and more uniform to communicate in international environments like

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: when a pilot from one country is trying to land an airplane and they're speaking with

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: airport personnel in a different country. They're both speaking English but they have

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: different accents and so they need to be able to spell to one another and you know sometimes gave

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_00]: the signal isn't very good so it has to be very very clear how they're spelling things and that's

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_02]: why this alphabet was invented. Right there might be static or a break in the signal,

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_02]: break in the signal or it might just generally be hard to hear the other caller so

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_02]: this is something that they used on the battlefield

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_02]: when communicating in field radios and it certainly works well in airline communications

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_02]: so it's something that's been used for a long time to be very clear which letter you're talking

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_02]: about. So now we'll pretend to take a call, have a mock phone call where we use the NATO

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_02]: phonetic alphabet see if you can understand the letters of the email address as Goyo says them

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_02]: using this tool. Good afternoon podcasting support services this is David.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Uh hi hi David I'm having some trouble uploading my last podcast episode using your service

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_02]: can you help me? Yes I can look into that for you sir may I may I have your name?

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes my name is Goyo Sanchez. Thank you Mr Sanchez um and may I have your email address?

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure it's uh questions at noterindaspodcast.us

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh I'm sorry noterindas how do you spell that? Oh yeah I'm sorry that's not English is it?

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Well we have an English podcast for Spanish speaking people so the name is partly in Spanish

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: but I can spell it for you. It's questions at November, Oscar, Tango, Echo, Romeo, India,

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: November, Delta, Alpha, Sierra, Podcast.us. Got it oh that really helped thanks for

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_02]: spelling that out phonetically okay I can use your email address to pull up your account

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_02]: with us one moment thanks okay Mr Sanchez I see what the problem is it looks like the source file

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: that you were attempting to upload was not in an mp3 format if you can change the format to

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_00]: mp3 for us the upload should go through just fine. Oh okay well I think I had it as a mp4 file

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_00]: that's right that's right so I will I will re-export that in mp3 and I'll get it to you right away.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay that sounds great you should have no trouble uploading it once it's in the correct format.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_02]: All right Ollintes another thing that can help if your caller is having difficulty

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_02]: understanding your questions is to provide examples or choices what uh what Goyo calls

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_02]: concrete examples to help your listener understand so some of you have heard me talk about the fact that

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I work for a call center where we help people over the phone with water heaters and one of

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_02]: the things that we have to ask them is where their water heater is located so one of the

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_02]: things that I have to teach my agents is instead of simply saying where is the water

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_02]: heater located which often causes the caller to say oh it's at 123 Reynolds street and then

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_02]: then the agent has to say no no not your address like where is it where is the water heater

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_02]: and and the confusion can continue I show them that it's it's best to say where is the water

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_02]: heater located like is it in your bedroom is it in your living room is it in your basement

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_02]: is it in a closet and those concrete examples almost always result in communication effective

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_02]: communication the caller will say oh well it's in my basement they they understand because

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_02]: that the agent is giving them a list of examples or choices so by letting the customer hear

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: concrete choices somehow that gives them more more empowerment in the conversation they

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: they understand more easily what you want from them right there can be confusion when you ask someone

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_02]: for example about location if i'm asking where something is located I could be asking

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_02]: the address I could be asking what floor is it on in the building or I could be asking

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_02]: you know specifically is it in is it in the broom closet I see I see so when you give examples

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_02]: contextual concrete examples it helps your listener understand exactly the category of

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_02]: of thing that you're asking about I'm specifically asking about for example which room it's in and

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_02]: so I give examples of rooms and those kinds of locations so a good word to know here

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: oyentes is the word ambiguous or ambiguous in espanol if you ask a general question without

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_00]: concrete specifics in the question because you think the question is already clear your question

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: may be ambiguous and as such you need to make the question more specific and give the customer

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: choices we'll now continue the simulated phone call where Gabe demonstrates how to ask questions

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_00]: that give the customer more concrete examples or choices so that communication can happen

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and that the customer can feel comfortable as well we always of course when our customers

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_00]: to feel comfortable in the United States that is a big deal if you're learning how to speak

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_00]: English to customers in this country we want to always show as much respect to their level

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_00]: of knowledge and intellect as we can let's get back to the phone call wait a minute I'm

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to upload this uh this file in the right format the mp3 but uh sir I have

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_00]: another problem I don't think I have a connection to the internet anymore hmm okay

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: okay where is your wi-fi router located I'm sorry my my what what what is a what did you call it

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_02]: wi-fi router the wi-fi router is what sends your wi-fi signal and allows you to have the

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_02]: internet on your phone for example um it usually looks like a black or white plastic

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_02]: box with lights on it and it's got cables coming out of the back of it usually oh oh the white box

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah yeah I have something like that um it's right here it's by my tv okay well can you tell me where

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_00]: your router is located well yeah it it's right here by my tv I just I just told you that it's

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_02]: right here by the tv oh no sorry sir no I like is your router in your living room your bedroom

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_02]: your basement oh oh yeah it's it's in my living room okay so the living room is normally in the

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_02]: middle of your house so you should have a good strong wi-fi signal there so what I would recommend

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_02]: is you unplug your wi-fi router from the wall for a few moments and then plug it back in uh this

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_02]: will reset your router and will likely resolve this issue and allow you to have internet again

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_00]: okay I'll try that all right I'll stand by hey what do you know it says that the the file has been

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_02]: successfully uploaded sir oh that's great to hear okay well that's taken care of um are there any

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_02]: other questions for me today nope that's it okay well thank you for being a customer

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_02]: of podcasting support services have a good day bye so in that last part of the phone call

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Gabe gave me choices he gave me specific concrete mental images that I have a better chance of

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_00]: understanding and he removed the ambiguous characteristics of the general question

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and made it more specific we want to thank malayna from englishmadesimple.net for giving us

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_00]: a chance to share our voices and perspectives with her listeners if you would like to learn more about

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_00]: the nato phonetic alphabet go to the link in our description for englishmadesimple.net

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and she will send you a digital book with all you need to know hey hey it's time for our quiz

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: what sticks in your brain after one listening to our show today you ready Gabe question number one

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: yes sir all right which is the best way for Goyo to respond when someone asks him

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: can you spell your name is it a repeat his name but louder i said my name is Goyo

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_00]: B he can spell his name G for golf O like Oscar Y like Yankee and O for Oscar again or C

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I can state something that rhymes like it's Goyo which rhymes with Poyo okay so one of those was

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_02]: clearly better than the other two we would definitely say that uh that two of them were not the best

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_02]: way to respond when someone asks you if you can spell your name so repeating your name but saying

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_02]: it louder and a louder voice is not usually an effective way to help someone understand what

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_02]: you're saying especially not how to spell something um and then saying that it rhymes

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_02]: with something like Goyo and Poyo even though you are both delicious uh it is tends to cause some

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_02]: is really only useful for pronunciation in this case the caller or the questioner was asking

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_02]: about spelling so B is the correct answer spelling your name phonetically golf oscar

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Yankee Oscar is the best way to respond in my opinion that is correct and um it's the first

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00]: time i've ever discovered that my brother has a tendency toward cannibalism he's interested in

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_00]: delicious human flesh all right question number two gave if you were supporting a call for

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_00]: an air conditioning service like el clima what would be best when trying to ask the customer to

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: locate the air vent where the air escapes into the room a uh where is the air vent

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_00]: B um can you put your mother on the phone please or C uh where is your air vent

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00]: is it in the bathroom um the closets the bedroom

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_02]: hmm well B doesn't really make any sense um A and C you're asking where the air vent

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_02]: is which is good but only C is the best way because you're you're giving an example you're

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_02]: saying you said where's your air vent is it in the bathroom the closet the bedroom and

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_02]: the the person you're asking is normally going to immediately respond with the room that it's in

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_02]: they're gonna say ah it's in the utility room or it's in the living room um because that takes

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_02]: away that ambiguity of of exactly what you're asking is that right that is correct congratulations

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: amazing we want to thank our patrons if you would like to become a patron of this show

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_00]: please go to www.patreon.com forward slash notary in does podcast and we have a series of goodies

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_00]: that go by tier level by nivel there that you can access we want to shout out some cities

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_00]: in the world that have been listening to our show lately and thank them first we have

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_00]: alicante españa trujillo peru there in the north of peru

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_00]: ira puato guanajuato mexico a place i would love to go and visit guanajuato uh we have two california

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_00]: cities today gave hayward and turlock california a bit closer to home and toronto canada um

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_00]: finally we have a listener in nuremberg germany as well as uh frankford as you know frankford germany

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_00]: is a regular listener to our show perhaps they know someone in nuremberg let me ask you something

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_02]: oyente have you already left our podcast a review or a rating if the answer is no please

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_02]: take a minute right now and leave us a rating or a review on your podcast platform they really do

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[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00]: a podcast player and not our website there are other resources on our website other than the

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_00]: show and that website address again is no te rindespodcast.us and there you can find our

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_00]: blog you can find support for specific types of english that you're trying to learn via video

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_00]: or written articles and of course you can find links to our app to nas on the google play store

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_02]: gregg i just know that the bulldogs from georgia are going to turn this around and get back to

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_02]: their winning ways uh alabama incidentally is always a very tough and unpredictable opponent

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_02]: i always watch what they do with interest they just seem to always find a way to win

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah i'm i'm sad i know my wife is sad she um she went to georgia as well

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_00]: but um we'll survive and be back next week thanks for your time bro all right i love you dearly

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_00]: and i'll talk to you soon all right bye bye